This essay examines what is considered to be one of the most important documents in the history of the reception of Vittoria Colonna's poetry: the 1558 edition with the commentary of Rinaldo Corso (1525–80?) entitled Tutte le rime della illustriss[ima] et eccellentiss[ima] signora Vittoria Colonna, Marchesana di Pescara, printed in Venice by the Sessa brothers under the direction of Girolamo Ruscelli. The appearance of Corso's edition constitutes a momentous occasion not only in the history of women's writing, but also in that of the Italian literary tradition. Corso's commentary has its origins in lectures he delivered in Correggio at the court of Veronica Gambara, who is the dedicatee of the first two editions. Containing Corso's commentary on the rime spirituali alone, these two editions appeared in 1542 and 1543, during Colonna's lifetime, an honour not previously accorded to a living author of either sex. The only other vernacular author whose lyrics had received extensive commentary was none other than Petrarch.

Corso's commentary performed a literary and cultural function similar to that of contemporary commentaries on Petrarch. His meticulous construction of a canzoniere (songbook) from Colonna's scattered lyrics, in order to trace an itinerary of conversion from amor terreno (earthly love) in Part 1 to amor celeste (heavenly love) in Part 2, in the complete version of 1558 constitutes an attempt to demonstrate not only the unity of Colonna's corpus but also the fact that it mirrored the structure of the Petrarchan lyric sequence. Such an operation in and of itself acknowledges Colonna's status as an auctor comparable to Petrarch. This notion is corroborated by an analysis of the commentary.